Atiz BookSnap is a Book Ripper, not a Scanner

by Mark R

I’ve often wondered why the age of the ebook is yet to be upon us. I suppose it has something to do with people wanting to hold real books and feel the pages turning.

Still, Atiz is prepared for this coming age with the BookSnap. Most people would call it a book scanner, but the company calls it a book ripper. I don’t like the connotation of that, but it is able to turn a book into a PDF at 500 pages per hour.

It uses two digital cameras to accomplish this to account for this speed. It looks like you can go through a pile of books in a fraction of the time it would take for the traditional handscanner. Not only that, the BookSnap won’t curl the pages as you press them down.

I do have a few questions: First, how does it turn the pages. I mean, there are days that I have to lick my fingers, so is this device more precise? How does it insure it doesn’t skip a page?

I noticed in the picture that there are no paperbacks in the pile. Unfortunately, a lot of my books are paperbacks, so I’m not certain if this would work.